Most of the jewellery I wear was given to me by someone else. So when I was musing to my friend about wanting some fat (or is that phat?) gold door knocker earrings straight out of the 80s she was to say the least, a little surprised. I got my ears pierced in a bout of "wanting to be like everyone else" in my early teens & spent a whole summer smelling like TCP. I've never really been big on them for some reason. Maybe it's the drawing attention to my face thing. But I see so many people rocking them so well that I thought I'd go the whole way & start with these bad boys.

They're satisfyingly cheap looking & feeling & actually one broke when I was wearing them the other day. The bf rose to the occasion and greased his hair back so we looked like a throwback ganster/gansta couple going to see The Artist. Which was not at all what I was expecting. Much like the new songs on Lana Del Rey's album. Talk about clunky. Hmm... Anyway, off track. Possible cultural appropriation aside there's something quite weirdly "power feminine" about big ass earrings. I like it. Especially with one of my favourite dresses from my favourite vintage shop in the whole of Paris. Apart from maybe Didier Loudout but I've never actually been in or bought anything from there so...

SWEAT ISSUE±14 IS HERE!

Perfect company for bidding farewell to those January blues. In this issue there's fashion illustration by Clover Chen, cool artwork by Emma Alhqvist plus other peoples new years resolution & my article musing over Lana Del Rey.

I'm also giving away 10 issues ABSOLUTELY FREE because the people at the printers are now like my best friends haha. If you would like a free issue either leave your e-mail in the comments below or e-mail sweat.zine@gmail.com. EDIT: All the issues are gone now. Sorry! First 10 people get the free issues, we'll contact you about postage addresses etc. Otherwise you can read the issue online here and buy it for £2.50 from the link at the bottom of the page. 

Things I bought and then haven't worn. I think this skirt just screamed SUMMER at me so I haven't worn it since I got it on eBay a few months back. I always feel a bit weird wearing tights under maxi skirts because I think it can take away the whole "flash of leg" thing you get that makes me more comfortable with so much fabric. Actually though, teemed with a jumper and some sheer tights it doesn't look too "covered". Especially in the wind, the slits totally take away from the frumpy Swedish street style feel. 

Chloe Sevigny is amazing. Do I need to say anything else? Oh these photos were taken by Craig McDean for Interview Magazine & you can see the rest here.

That is all.

Brown phase take two. So I've never bought anything from Ted Baker before, in fact my perceptions of it were such that I'd never really thought of it as somewhere I'd actually find anything. Although I do have a soft spot for those bright patent bags with the bows because this awesome girl I used to know had one. Anyway. Me and my mum made the trip out to John Lewis, mainly to look in the wool sale and pick up a gift I'd reserved online, when I saw this amazing swan printed dress. After getting confused over the number sizing I went for the biggest one so it's easy to wear as a shift & I can wear it longer (age wise) or with a belt. I'm always a sucker for a good print. Plus it's 100% silk & has all these cute things all over the label, about Ted thinking I look "Fabulous"

I wasn't sure whether to post about this but it's just still so funny that I figured I'd share. I have a black eye. I'm not being abused, but the absurdity of how it happened either makes you think I am being & it's a really bad story, or it's so crazy it must be true (it is). Basically I kicked myself in the face with a fake leg. (I just laughed again) I use a synthetic leg to put the hearts on the tights I sell and I was balancing it thigh down between my own legs to put the tight over the toe. I turned to pick up the tights and it fell right into my face. It's weighted at the toe so it stands up & it hit right on my bone so it came up in like a huge bump. But we were laughing so hard for like 10 minutes that I didn't notice how much it actually hurt. So yes. Now it's all yellow & stuff. My bf said I look like a gansters moll. So helpful!

Whoa the image quality of the Givenchy is atrocious, apologies. I'll update with some better one's when I find them. But in a frantic burst of "Holy wow, look at that" before I try to get some sleep; here's some amazement. I love couture. It's like beauty x art x fashion all squared with like crack or something. I was initially disappointed with lacklustre Dior but Chanel more than made up for it. & Ricardo Tisci has broken out of his white & feather phase with like chains & shit. In a basketball court gym thing. What? Need more photos. Now please. All from Style.com.

These photos caught my eye from things going into H&M over the next couple of months. I saw some of the stuff the other day & it was all kind of horrible feeling, with the Acne style jumper a little shiny for my taste. But that motorcycle feel raincoat is INSANE. I will be checking into town over the next month looking out for this beauty. I'm sure it will feel disgusting too, but then I guess it's sort of supposed too. & I can then say officially that I have a developing see-thru raincoat collection along with my Berlin muji find. 

There was also a couple of good men's shirts here & here, that I wish I still had a preppy male friend to convince into. Or a bf that wore colours other than black. Plus quite a lot of suit jackets with matching colour shorts/trousers. This blue blazer & matching wide legs are pretty lovely. Unfortunately though I find wide legs are usually too short for me. So I end up with the kind of weird cropped ones ASOS seem obsessed with at the moment. I'm not really into that. But I find it weird because anyone can hem up a pair of trousers that are too long, or wear heels, but you can't produce fabric out of no where. Does anyone else have this problem? Oh well, I think I'd rather have my gangly legs than some wide leg trousers.

What do you have your eye on?

This seemed appropriate for a Sunday post. I know, most of you will have already heard of Donna Wilson, or seen her lovely stuff at John Lewis & suchlike. Coming across lots of her work at the Soma gallery a week or so reminded me that I'd saved these catalogue images a while back. They're so damn cute! Almost cute enough to make me want to spend almos £40 on a hot water bottle cover... & I don't even like hot water bottles. I am more than a little tempted by the peanut teddy though, Valentines is coming up & the bf has just got a peanut tattoo in honour of my nickname for him. I know I told him, "Tattoos last longer than relationships." his reply, "Rad tattoos look awesome forever".

Sunday love.

Posting before work? Now that's dedication. Especially when I've barely slept. Anyway, I've been going through a bit of a brown phase at the moment. I don't know where it came from but this dress is the third brown thing I've bought this month. Weird. Before that I only had one brown dress, that I barely wore. Maybe it's something about the weather. But anyway. Now I'm allowed to shop again when we were in Bath the other day (looking for some vintage jewellery) I popped into Urban Outfitters. I found this dress in the sale. It has like adjustable bra sleeves so you can make it extra low & wear it over t-shirts so it's work appropriate & very 90s. I was also thinking unbuttoned a little over a longline bra top would look good. For now though I'll twirl around like a 5 year old & admire to flared out skirt. Yay!

Trust it to be the one week when fashion people might be looking at my blog to be the week I post a frustrated eBay rant & then take off to Glasgow so I can't post anything else. Oh well, I guess if they can't appreciate the fact that blogging is about every aspect of someone's personality then that's not my problem. & you guys. Jeez you guys. Your comments were so lovely. & I know I shouldn't have got so worked up about it. It's just. You know. I want human kind to be nice & I don't like to be proved wrong on that. Repeatedly. Plus it just put the icing on an already bad mood I was in so...yeah... But it's all good now!

Obviously Sarah Burton's 2011 has to give way to Stella McCartney's 2012, but damn, she pulled it out the bag for the McQueen Pre-Fall. I mean can you just imagine the life you could lead in these clothes? That velvet slash neck catsuit is just...well, insane. & puts fuel on the slow burning desire I've had for a full blown all-in-one for a while. I might just have to put aside my claustrophobia fears & embrace the turtle neck. Especially now it's getting cold. It all seems to have fallen perfectly into place. My other highlights recently from Pre-Fall have been this look at Dior. & the whole collection actually. I was surprised to have my attention taken. Plus Givenchy, obvs. Riccardo Tisci is God.

What are your highlights? Need to check out the menswear...

Ok so I know this is probably uninteresting to anyone but me, but I just can't quite believe that it's happening. So I thought putting it up here would somehow calm me down a bit. I literally cannot believe the things this person is saying to me. I listed some stuff on eBay between Christmas & New Year. It was a lot of stuff & I made a couple of mistakes. In this I wrote it was 100% silk when there's no label. I believed it to be, but I should've stated this. I bought the dress in a charity shop as a dress, rather than a slip and have worn it as such. I never noticed any thread or obvious signs it had been cut out of something else. It said in the listing that it was sheer & a slip style. Jesus, the listing says Slip Dress in big ass letters in it.

The thing is, I don't know what to do. She paid fucking 99p for something! I have bought stuff on eBay for 99p and if it turns up & it's not 100% what I want I just think, "Fuck it, it was only a pound" Isn't that what rational human beings do? I can only assume that she's getting off on making me think the whole of man kind is a screwed up little fuck tard who likes to belittle honest people by scaring them with quotes from the eBay handbook. But there's no way to complain. I've already given her positive feedback so what else can I do? You can't give buyers back feedback. Although I do notice they already have a few comments removed after leaving bad feedback.

I just hate how angry/upset it's making me. What should I do?

Cos in Paris was like a school of how to wear wonderful coats. A majority of the shop was black and everyone had a habit of crowding you to get first dibs even though it wasn't that busy and there wasn't a limit to the clothes. It was a little weird. But I was looking mainly for my mum. She got some amazing stuff, mainly this orange felt dress that I think she should get made in a rainbow of colours & wear only that for the rest of her life. But that's just me. 

Anyway when I saw this I sort of fell in love with the colour. I've wanted something the sort of neon yellow green for a while now but have been told my several people how it would just make me look sick and ill. I don't wholly buy into that whole, "certain people shouldn't wear certain colours" thing since I broke through my orange barrier. That sounded dramatic, anyway, I don't want to look ill or sick but I think this is just the right side of green for it to look ok. The shape is more of a challange but what do you think I should wear with it? I'm sticking to tight at the moment for safety.

Got that new year, new shoe itch. I was torn between getting a pair of Clarks Desert Boots in black or maybe a rad colour or some Dr Marten shoes because their boots have always been close to my heart. I went into a Clarks shop the other day and after scanning the men's sale shoes (I have giant feet) & getting all depressed like I usually do in shoe shops, I found some Desert's in my size & tried them on only to find they have giant bits inside that dig into your feet. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I'm not really into that.

And then scanning the DM sale for some bargain shoes THESE happened. The Lex Shoe in Petrol. Petrol, like when it leaks onto the pavement and shines out all those crazy colours. Holy fuck. I am literally hypnotised by them. They've been opened in a tab on my browser for a week or so now. Along with these red pony hairs that are a little bit of a pipe dream. All I need is £274 pounds for both. That's the equivilant of like 5 days at work. I've developed a really annoying habit of thinking of costs of things in terms of hours at work. BAD. Do you think I could pass them off as investment shoes?

So my little boxing day treat finally arrived. Disco pants round 2. Weirdly I bought my black pair last boxing day... Oh wow that means maybe by next year I can finally own the gold pair that I was so close to buying 50% off. Anyway, yay for navy! It opens many possibilities of all blue outfits. I do love a head to toe monochrome. Doesn't everyone? 

The first week of 2012 was a weird one huh? I spent Friday in Walk In Centre and A&E waiting rooms. My tongue swelled up & a nurse had to dig my tongue ball/bar out. It's still healing but I'm ok. Also had a mini break down brought on my New Year's early morning "What am I going to do with my life" fit. And have listened to literally nothing but Lana Del Rey this whole year. Is that sad? I've made myself a CD from all her songs on youtube & I just wish she would dress a little better. That is the ONLY thing I am concerned about with her appearance. In other news I'm newly addicted to The Rachel Zoe Project and rewatching The September Issue & Lagerfield Confidential. Much to the dismay of my film accomplice, the bf. Oh well, maybe I'll mature in my tastes one day.

How was your week?

My mum was going to buy this for me for Christmas after she saw it in my gift guide. But £12? For a snow globe? No. When I saw it in the sale I had to get it. & make a gif, because, you know. How shit were the sales this year? I was so disappointed. Zara was completely ransacked already, the offers in American Apparel were so stupidly confusing & loads of places just had shit stuff in the sale with no like 20% off everything offers like I was expecting. What happened to everyone being in trouble? I guess all the good stuff went in the pre Christmas sales...which defeats the whole point. I did get some lovely underwear though, only £5 off. Rubbish.

How did you get on

in the sales? 

So I saw this thread on The Fashion Spot where they'd read 50 books in a year and posted their progress, lists & reviews as they progressed. Working in a book shop I always feel like I should read more & generally I like the idea of being a "well read" person. I set out to do it because I thought it would make me read more interesting & unusual books. It was tough & I admit there were a few poetry books in there at the end but the other day I finished number 50! Unfortunately it did the opposite of what I wanted, I read safe things more because I just wanted to "get through them" as it were. I wouldn't recommend it. Although the freedom I have now means I want to read weirder things so maybe it worked...

A pretty major thing. Especially when half my friends went off to uni & I'm only 19. I'll never say never on the degree front. If I found something I wanted to set my life on I would shell out, move out & do the degree. But to be honest, universities make me homicidal & the students in Bristol are more than enough to put anyone off going to university. We'll see I guess.

So here's me wearing all the things I actually did buy. Two Antipodium dresses, one in the sale, one as a birthday present that I paid half of. Two jumpers, both on sale, one via someone else. One skirt from the Monsoon sale. Plus I was wearing my zara orange trousers, officially the only garment of clothing I paid full price for this whole year. That is pretty fucking awesome. I am still vowed never to set foot in a Topshop ever again but I am looking forward to shopping again. I will however be getting rid of some clothes to do so, trying harder to only buy natural fibres and not going mental buying things I don't actually need. I would recommend everyone trying this!

There's nothing I'm actually saving for. The future I guess. Me & the boy were considering going to Mexico & I guess one day, eventually, in the future I'm going to have to move out. But now I'm working more & earning more I think I need to do something other than fritter it away to make it a worthwhile thing to be spending all my time doing, if that makes sense. Maybe 1/4 - 1/2 of my pay check a month. That seems pretty resonable.

So this one was in my New Year's Resolutions of 2 years ago... & there was a brief spell where I thought everything was sweet & I knew what I wanted to do & I had a thing & something to work towards & a hell of a lot of work to do to get there. I would still love to do this thing but being that my passion has wavered slightly I think I miss the feeling of actually knowing what I want to do more than working towards it. I have a list of jobs now but to be honest none of them are really *IT*. I just wish people would stop saying that I'll "fall into something" because that is how you end up working in retail for 30 years without ever being made a manager.

I still reserve the right to a tirade against the Conservative government ripping our country to shreds once in a while. But maybe just to not talk about shooting people in the head when I see then writing down the details of a book at work to look up & buy online later. Or not be so angry towards every single cyclist in Bristol. I'm sorry but there are too many of you that are shit for me not to generalise. Anyway yes so you see the problem. I have strong opinions... but I think I need to express them less uhr, violently!

What are your

resolutions for 2012?